text:
Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and while it might be a little too early to start cooking, it's probably time to finalize your guest list. Music commentator Miles Hoffman knows exactly whom he'd like to invite to the table. He says he's chosen only dead composers.
"That narrows the field, and that way nobody can turn me down, so I can invite whoever I want," Hoffman says. You can see Hoffman's top composer picks below, and hear their music. Oddly enough, some of the big guns are missing from his table.
"Mozart, especially, would be fun," Hoffman says. "But the problem is, we already know a lot about Mozart from his letters, what he thought about music and musicians, and his sense of humor — which was, I guess 'off color' would be the mildest way to put it. So there's not a lot of mystery to clear up with Mozart. And Beethoven? There was a little too much tendency for him to be rude and crabby."
Hoffman says they wouldn't be appropriate for thanksgiving dinner: "I'd invite them for lunch instead. Turkey sandwiches on the weekend after."
But what if you had to choose just a single guest? Hoffman recommends someone who might just want to entertain the dinner party.
"I'm thinking a guy like Leonard Bernstein would be a lot of fun," he says. "He'd probably take over the whole evening. Plus, he would sit down at the piano and play endlessly. And if you've got Bernstein, maybe you should have Gershwin, too. And the two of them would compete to see who's going to sit and play more of their own music."
Which composers would you invite to sit around your Thanksgiving table? Give us your guest list in the comments section.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Diginexus GmbH
Diginexus GmbH - your online marketing agency from Düsseldorf. Whether website, online shop, social media or a holistic digital concept. Diginexus supports you strategically and measurably
Diginexus GmbH is your online marketing agency based in Dusseldorf. Digital marketing agency Dusseldorf. Diginexus helps you to be strategic and measureable.
Düsseldorf (UK: DUUS-əl-dorf, US: DEWS-, German: [ˈdʏsl̩dɔʁf] (listen); often Dusseldorf in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: Düsseldörp [ˈdɵsəldœʀ(ə)p]; archaic Dutch: Dusseldorp [ˈdʏsəlˌdɔr(ə)p]) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a population of 617,280.Düsseldorf is located at the confluence of two rivers: the Rhine and the Düssel, a small tributary. The -dorf suffix means "village" in German (English cognate: thorp); its use is unusual for a settlement as large as Düsseldorf. Most of the city lies on the right bank of the Rhine. Düsseldorf lies in the centre of both the Rhine-Ruhr and the Rhineland Metropolitan Region.
Altenhof, Am Sittardsberg, Angerhausen, Balken, Bratwurst, Brockerberg, Broich, Broicherdorf, Burbach, Diepenbroich, District 2, District 3, District 4, Dusseldorf-Seestern, Düsseldorf Arcaden

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hello, Dolly!, Starring Bette Midler, to Release Cast Recording
Put on your Sunday headphones! Hello, Dolly!, starring powerhouse Bette Midler, will release a cast album via Masterworks Broadway on May 12. See the Jerry Zaks-helmed production at the Shubert Theatre, and then pre-order the record on iTunes or Amazon.
Produced by Grammy winner Steven Epstein, the Hello, Dolly! cast recording will feature the vocals of the entire Broadway cast, including David Hyde Pierce, Gavin Creel, Kate Baldwin, Beanie Feldstein and more.
With music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, Hello, Dolly! tells the story of an outspoken matchmaker named Dolly (Midler) and her attempts to marry "half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder (Pierce). Opening night of this revival, which marks the first mounting of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway since 1995, is scheduled for April 20.


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LONDON -- British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce (IW 1000/234) revealed today that it is facing a corruption probe in the United States as well as Britain.
"The group is currently under investigation by law enforcement agencies, primarily the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Justice," the company said in its annual report. "Breaches of laws and regulations in this area can lead to fines, penalties, criminal prosecution, commercial litigation and restrictions on future business."
Rolls-Royce had revealed late last year that Britain's SFO had launched a formal investigation into alleged bribery linked to the group's overseas operations.
The company had warned in 2012 that it might be prosecuted over alleged "malpractice" in Indonesia and China after passing on information related to bribery concerns to the office.
The London-listed firm stressed that it is cooperating with the investigations but has yet to receive official notice of a formal U.S. Department of Justice probe.
"Rolls-Royce has been cooperating with regulatory authorities on both sides of the Atlantic in regard to allegations of bribery and corruption," the company added. "The SFO in the U.K. has launched a formal investigation. The DOJ is also investigating these matters, however we have received no notification of a formal enquiry being launched in the United States."
Earlier this week, meanwhile, India's defense ministry ordered an investigation into the purchase of jet fighter engines from Rolls-Royce in a deal reportedly worth $1.6 billion, an official said on Monday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation will probe allegations of kickbacks over the deal for Rolls-Royce to supply engines to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. between 2007 and 2011, a defense ministry official said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014


text:
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text:
1. In A Plain Brown Wrapper at Johalla Projects
Not for kids. Literally, you have to be 18 or over to enter. Work by Steven Frost, Elisa Garza, Elise Goldstein, Emerson Granillo, Jesse Hites, Jacob King, Ivan Lozano, Joelle McTigue, Karina Natis, Clare O'Sadnick, Edward Rossa, Joshua Sampson, Talaya Schmid, Kristen Stokes, Jaroslaw Studencki, Bu Tu, Wayama Woo, and Meredith Zielke. Organized by Barbara DeGenevieve.
Johalla Projects is located at 1561 N. Milwaukee Ave. Reception Saturday from 7-10pm
2. Ox-Bow Centennial Two-fer: Historical Works at Corbett vs. Dempsey and Contemporary Art at Roots and Culture.
Two exhibitions celebrating the Centennial festivities for the Ox-Bow Summer School of Art.
Corbett vs. Dempsey is located at 1120 N Ashland Ave. Reception Saturday from 5-9pm. Roots and Culture is located at 1034 N. Milwaukee Ave. Reception Saturday from 6-9pm.
3. There, Now It Will Last Forever at The Family Room
Work by Stephen Eichhorn, James Ewert Jr, Ron Ewert, Mike Fortress, Jenny Kendler, Michael Ruggirello, Molly Schafer, Ben Speckmann, Davey Sommers, Scott Thomas and INDO.
The Family Room is located at 1821 W. Hubbard St., #202. Reception Friday from 7pm-12am.
4. Sangre, Sudor y Papeles: Artists examine the immigration issue at Antena
Work by Saul Aguirre, Adriana Baltazar, Miguel Cortez, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Jaime Mendoza, Jenny Priego, and Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa.
Antena is located at 1765 S Laflin St. Reception Friday from 6-10pm.
5. No Money No Pancakes at Second Bedroom
Something weird'll be going on. BYOB but there's free waffles.
Second Bedroom is located at 3216 S. Morgan St. Reception Saturday from 7-11pm.
- 10 Shows to See Friday After EXPO - September 17, 2015
- Top 10 Weekend Picks! (9/4-9/6) - September 3, 2015
- Top 5 Weekend Picks! (8/21-8/23) - August 20, 2015


text:
The story so far...
You're currently on our features and projects pages, with material ranging from the satirical to the theological. For more features,
click here
Shaming the Tiger
Reviewers on Amazon and posters on martial arts bulletin boards have long suspected that
Taming the Tiger
, the dramatic Christian conversion story of Tony Anthony, who claims to be a kung fu world champion, is a fake. But now an inquiry led by the Evangelical Alliance has agreed with them. Gavin Drake, who has independently investigated the story, reports.
Click here
for comments and discussion of this story
, the
Evangelical Alliance
has been investigating claims that a best-selling author and prison evangelist fabricated his dramatic life-story. Yesterday (12 July) they issued a
joint statement
with the trustees of the evangelist's charity,
Avanti Ministries
, saying that his story is false.
Tony Anthony and trustees from the Essex-based global evangelism charity Avanti gave evidence to the three-man inquiry panel, which was launched after it was claimed that his autobiography, on which the charity is based, was built on fantasy and plagiarism.
Tony Anthony's
Taming the Tiger
, distributed in the UK through the Christian publisher
Authentic Media
, has sold more than 1.5 million copies in 25 countries. On the back of it, Anthony travels the world preaching the gospel in prisons, schools and churches as far away as Asia, South Africa and South America.
In the book, Anthony says he was taken to China by his grandfather, a kung fu grand master, at the age of four. He was trained in the martial arts and became kung fu world champion three times. He then moved to Cyprus, becoming an elite bodyguard to businessmen, gangsters and diplomats before being jailed in Nicosia Central Prison for a series of thefts from hotels. It was in prison that Tony Anthony says he became a Christian.
Questions have been asked about the authenticity of
Taming the Tiger
ever since it was first published in 2004. Critics were quick to point out that it reads like a work of fiction; and now an intensive investigation by a group of church leaders suggests that it is exactly that.
after Mike Hancock resigned from his post as a director of Avanti Ministries Ltd, the charitable company set up by Anthony to support his work. Hancock had asked for proof of Tony Anthony's claims but was met with evasion.
"I understood that I had a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that his story could be thoroughly verified. I was unable to persuade my fellow directors of the need to do this. I therefore resigned from Avanti and pursued the search for truth with other like-minded Christians," Hancock said.
He, together with another former Avanti director and a small, informal group of concerned church leaders, set about investigating Tony Anthony's background. Their findings were presented to the trustees of Avanti, the Evangelical Alliance and Authentic Media.
As a result of the evidence obtained by the church leaders, the Evangelical Alliance launched its formal inquiry at the request of Avanti. The informal investigators began by rebutting claims made by Anthony in his book.
One of the long-standing objections raised about Tony Anthony's story is that there is no record, anywhere, to support claims that he won any kung fu competition, let alone that he was three-times world champion. Anthony attempts to deal with this criticism on his website (the grammatical errors are the website's own):
"The competitions that Tony Anthony took part in are over 200 years old and they are derived from the lineage of 'Gong So' who goes back to the Manchu Dynasty. These competitions are held in mainland China and as they are so specialised Tony Anthony have not known them to be publicised outside of the relevant circles, which is another reason why Tony Anthony doubt very much that you would ever find these competitions advertised on a Google search engine."
But scrutiny of the book's text reveals that many of the passages detailing kung fu techniques were copied wholesale from a specialist martial arts website. One passage is lifted from a book about Bruce Lee.
The investigators went further: Tony Anthony claims to have worked as an elite bodyguard to "a number of wealthy jet-setting clients" before becoming "first hand man" and close protection officer to the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to London, Amin Fahed. But there is no record of any Saudi Arabian diplomat called Amin Fahed. The Saudi ambassador to London at the time was Sheikh Nasser Almanqour.
Tony Anthony has long blamed the discrepancies on "western naivety" for not understanding that some details would be changed because of the "underworld and criminal nature" of his pre-conversion activities.
But Tony Anthony's story really came apart when the investigators discovered his true identity: he was born Andonis Andreou Athanasiou on 30 July 1971 in London's University College Hospital. Tony Anthony has now confirmed that this is his true identity.
But he has not explained how he could have been leading five-man security teams, checking hotel rooms for IEDs, engaging in James Bond-style high-speed gun-toting chases through the streets of Riyadh and using kung fu kicks to overpower armed kidnappers in Switzerland when he could only have been aged 13-14 or 16-17, depending on which version of the book you read.
his true identity, the investigators discovered that Tony Anthony could not have been taken to China by his kung fu grandfather when he was four. Anthony's grandfather was a laundry worker in Cardiff who later owned a café in Streatham. He died seven years before Anthony was born.
Anthony also claims in his book that his father was Italian. In fact he was a Cypriot who anglicised the family name from Athanasiou to Anthony.
Tony Anthony's deception isn't restricted to his book. When he married his wife Sara in Rayleigh United Reformed Church, Southend, in 1995, he claimed he was 25 years old, but he was actually just 23.
He used his correct date of birth on official records when he registered Avanti Ministries Ltd in 2003; but two years later he submitted a change of details form to Companies House amending his birth year to 1969.
A spokesman for Companies House said they would assume the change was to correct a previous mistake, saying: "We accept all documents in good faith and would not actively pursue them to confirm it was correct information."
The investigators sent their findings to Anthony's publishers. In the US, Baker Publishing dropped plans to publish a re-telling of Anthony's story, saying: "We do not plan to publish
Burning Tiger
at this time. The reasons for that decision are between the publisher and author."
Anthony's UK publisher, the ironically named Authentic Media, said earlier this month that it had not seen the inquiry's report. Today, after the EA and Avanti published their joint statement, they withdrew
Taming the Tiger
from sale on their website.
, Tony Anthony continues to claim he was taken to China by his grandfather, despite admitting in response to the informal investigation that he was taken by "a distant relative" as part of a "complex family arrangement".
He pulled out of an interview in March, requesting instead that questions were put to him in writing. In response, he declined to say why he used a fraudulent date of birth when he got married or why he changed his date of birth with Companies House.
Anthony has also not replied to fresh questions put to him on Thursday this week, but in an interview with Premier Christian Radio yesterday (12 July), he said, defiantly: "I wish this could have been as people portray it: a situation where some concerned people come along to ask some questions and we can then try to promptly offer a response and work through it."
He claimed instead that the criticisms against him were a "stern attack" and an attempt to destroy his ministry and dismantle Avanti.
Anthony told Premier Radio that "these are inconsequential inaccuracies in many ways... that in no way undermine the truth of my story," and said that he was working on a revised version of the book to correct the account.
But the joint Avanti and Evangelical Alliance statement is more forthright. It says: "The panel... concluded, based on the evidence submitted to it, that large sections of the book
Taming the Tiger
, and associated materials, which claim to tell the true story of Tony Anthony's life, do not do so.
"Both the Evangelical Alliance and Avanti Ministries take serious note of the findings of the report and as a result Avanti has concluded that it is not appropriate to continue to support
Taming the Tiger
Geoff Elliott, the other former Avanti trustee who took part in the church leaders' investigation, said: "Tony Anthony's reaction and response to a well-intentioned and sensible suggestion about how directors of Avanti could validate his testimony without allowing confidential and personal information to be made public strengthened my conviction that something was not right.
"I am sad at the extent of the deception and that this has impacted many people over the last 10 years; and concerned that when the truth comes out, as it undoubtedly will, this lack of truthfulness will damage the faith of those people who have been led to faith by Tony and his testimony."
Mike Hancock, commented: "Many have received the dramatic elements of Tony's testimony in good faith believing that it must have been verified as true. They have a right to know that it has never been verified. The evidence that has been uncovered does not verify his story."
Another member of the investigation team, the Revd Carl Chambers, leader of Christ Church in Brighton, said: "I am deeply saddened that Tony should have been able to continue for so long in his deceit. I firmly believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead that is the truth. It is hypocritical for an evangelist therefore to fabricate stories about himself whilst proclaiming the truth."
And David Buick, a French-based prison chaplain, who also took part in the investigation, said: "I became concerned that somebody speaking in schools and prisons worldwide about their transformed life could be making much of their story up, and decided to find out more. For followers of Jesus, love and truth are supposed to go hand in hand. Checking out fantastic claims is a vital part of genuine faith, and our findings show how important it is that we do just that."
Click here
for comments and discussion of this story
This article was originally published on
, a faith-based news and features service run by Gavin Drake, and is used by permission
Gavin Drake is a writer and broadcaster who specialises in issues of religion and law. He was director of communications for the Bishop and Diocese of Lichfield until 2011.


text: Amitabh Harivansh Bachchan (born 11 October 1942) is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades. Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. So total was his dominance of the movie scene in the 1970s and 1980s that the French director François Truffaut called him a "one-man industryâ€. He occupied the top slot of Box Office India's Top Actors list for a record (shared with Dilip Kumar) sixteen consecutive years. (wikipedia)


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May 19, 2014
Kite Pharma Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering
Santa Monica, CA – May 19, 2014 – Kite Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing engineered autologous T cell therapy (eACT™) products for the treatment of cancer, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. All shares of common stock to be sold in the offering will be offered by Kite. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.
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Zynga and Facebook's revised agreement, which allows Facebook to develop its own games, is actually good for the gaming company, said Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities on CNBC's "Halftime Report."
"Big deal, Facebook can make games. They're not going to. Zynga is going to make $30 million more because of this amendment. That's a big deal," Pachter said Friday.
Zynga shares fell as much as 10 percent Friday after news of the new deal was reported on Thursday.
While the change in terms allows Facebook to get into the gaming business, it also gives Zynga greater freedom from Facebook.
The "Farmville" creator no longer has to use Facebook credits on Zynga games, and Zynga can launch games on other platforms.
The company is now getting the same treatment as all other game developers on Facebook's platform, something that will actually boost Zynga's revenue, Pachter said.
While Zynga has benefited from some preferential treatment from its partnership with Facebook, the gaming company has also been very limited in its ability to grow beyond the social network's platform.
Now that Zynga has the same rights as its competitors — including Kabam and King.com — the gaming company can expand and offer games on its own site, Zynga.com, without being required to link users to the Facebook platform.
Pachter, who rates Zynga "outperform," said that because Zynga can now expand to new platforms and offer additional payment options, it is likely the company will attract additional players who are not Facebook users.
"There's value in Zynga. They have 300 million users," he said. "I think that their cash flow goes up by $30 million and their cash bleed gets cut in half. They're going to be profitable next year. I think the stock is going to go up."
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text:
Seebohm Scorches 58.23 100 Back Opener
Jul 29, 2012
Olympic Games, London, Day 2 heats:
Nothing like a world record just missed to wake everyone up on the morning after what many are describing today as one of the most brutal opening days in the Olympic pool they could recall.
Australian Emily Seebohm sent smoke off the water with a 58.23sec Olympic record in the 4th heat of the women's 100m backstroke. The time fell just 0.11sec shy of the world mark held by Britain's Gemma Spofforth.
Seebohm looked stunned and shook her head as if to say "no way!" The 20-year-old, kept from her best last year by a bout of swine 'flu last year, said: "I did look at the 50m split and I was 0.1 under the world record and I was saying 'don't get over your head, just keep going and go as hard as you can. All I wanted to do this morning was make it through and not miss out, not worry about world records. I saw a few that were really close yesterday and I didn't want to be one of those. I know what it is like to make the semis and miss out."
She added: "My goal is to keep moving forward and maybe the world record in the final, who knows? It was definitely not the hardest I can go. But you never know what everyone else can do."
After recovering from swine 'flu she got straight back into training for London 2012. "My god," she said. "I trained very hard since coming back last year. And having all the disappointments of the last year I was keen to get going. I've been wanting to do it for so long. The time I did was incredible. It just shows that I wasn't good last year and not at my best. I'm just happy that people know I'm still around and I'm still smashing it."
The first day of action threw at least one odd ball into the mix in every event, with world records holders and champions missing the cut for finals, Michael Phelps missing the podium and a 16-year-old from China, Ye Shiwen, racing as fast over the last 100m for gold in the 400m medley as Ryan Lochte did on his way to gold in the same event for men.
Expect similar shocks as the meet unfolds, though this morning was a little more stable than it all felt yesterday, all the big guns through, 400m free champion Rebecca Adlington (GBR) and world champion and record holder Federica Pellegrini (ITA) cutting it close and qualifying in lanes 8 and 1 respectively for a thriller-in-prospect.
The big miss of the morning: Brazil. After having made the mistake in Shanghai 2011 by letting Cesar Cielo have a morning off, the coaches and whoever it was that thought it a good strategy, might have learned their lesson. But no: they did it again. Guess what? 9th again in the 4x100m free heats - Cielo can have the evening off too.
As Matt Grevers (USA), after fine efforts in the 100m back and 4x100m free, put it: "Everybody was swimming lights out, and there's always going to be new faces coming up, new people. You can't take making the finals for granted, so I'm going to have to work pretty hard tonight."
Day 2 heats:
Women's 100m backstroke
Well, that woke everyone up. Emily Seebohm (AUS) just clocked 58.23, an Olympic record, in the 4th heat of the 100m backstroke. The times is just 0.11sec outside the world mark held by Gemma Spofforth (GBR).
Spofforth, looking stronger than she has for a long time, was on 1:00.05 in the next heat, with Anastasia Zueva (RUS) on 59.88, Julia Wilkinson (CAN), also under the minute, Rachel Bootsma (USA) just over it.
Melissa Franklin (USA), who had been the swiftest in the world so far this year, cruised through in 59.37 at the helm of the last heat, with Belinda Hocking (AUS), on 59.61, Aya Terakawa (JPN) on 59.82. The cut off for the semis: 1:00.25.
"I made some little mistakes," said Spofforth, "my start wasn't great, I slipped on the blocks, my finish was awful. Lots of things can improve!"
2004 bronze medallist Laure Manaudou bottomed out at the end of the last heat in 1:01.03 - the Olympic final elusive in the event where she placed 8th last time round in Beijing. Pity that many French newspapers this morning had double page spreads on her.
The final tally saw both Canadians Wilkinson of Stratford, Ont. and Sinead Russell of Burlington (100.10) - who had swum in the same heat - through to the semis in 7th and 13th place respectively.
Men's 200m freestyle
The fourth heat got the qualifying process started: Danila Izotov (RUS) set the pace at 1:46.61 ahead of Britain's Robbie Renwick, 1:46.86, world record holder Paul Biedermann, of Germany, on 1:47.27, good enough to go through a day after he missed the cut for the 400m final.
A hint of what the final holds tomorrow came next as two gold medal winners from day 1 bumped heads. China's Sun Yang, the morning after claiming the 400m crown, refused to give up when world champion Ryan Lochte, of America, drove off the last turn with a dolphin kick that have him a metre lead. Sun clawed back the deficit with every stroke and pipped Lochte, winner of the 400m medley last night, 1:46.24 to 1:46.45, those two the best qualifying times of the morning.
"I was aiming to finish first or second in the heats to qualify for the semi-final. I'll try to do my best, but the 200 freestyle is not my best event. It's more difficult for me than the 400 or the 1500," said Sun. But judging by how easy the first hundred looked, this event may soon be on his top list.
Lochte, who didn't get to bed until 2 am in the wake of his first gold medal performance last night, said he was pretty tired. "But it was a prelim swim so I'm not too worried," he added.
Asked to comment on Chinese gold medallist Ye Shiwen having swum a faster freestyle leg than he did on Saturday night, Lochte said, "Yeah, we were talking about that at dinner. It's pretty impressive. She's fast. if she was there with me, she might have bet me."
In the last heat, Yannick Agnel, the Frenchman who leads the world this year on the clock, clocked 1:46.60 ahead of 400m silver medal winner of yesterday Park Taehwan, of South Korea. The semis closed in 1:47.97.
Another edge-out for Canadian Blake Worsley of Victoria who missed the men's 200 freestyle semifinal by only 0.17 seconds for 17th overall. He won in his heat in 1:48.14.
"I was nervous but in that situation you have to make the best of it no matter how you're feeling," said Worsley. "I'm happy with what I got out of myself."
Women's 100 breaststroke
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania decided to set the bar early and burned up heat 4 in 1:05.56 to post a national record and the fastest time this season - just shy of the European record held by Yuliya Efimova (1:05.41). She left second placed Liesel Jones (AUS) far behind in 1:06.98.
Meilutyte, who is coached in Britain by John Rudd at Plymouth College, came into the meet with a 1:07.3. Now eight fastest ever, she is a contender for a medal in the final tomorrow after the semi-finals this evening. "I didn't expect that at all," she said. "I am in shock - I'm speechless."
In her wake this morning came world champion Rebecca Soni (USA), on 1:05.75, Yuliya Efimova, the European record holder from Russia, on 1:06.51, US Olympic trials winner Breeja Larson, all smiles on 1:06.58, and Olympic champion Jones.
The next test for Meiluytyte will be to hold her nerve in that company this evening when vying for a place in what would be her first Olympic final.
Jones, the defending champion, was asked about the taunts back home in a media spoke of her having put on flab. "It was a a bit hard," said Jones. "It's been a new challenge for me and I'd like to prove them wrong by swimming fast. It's the best thing that could have happened to me ... thanks a lot [media], you really fired me up."
Canadians Jillian Tyler of Calgary and Tara van Beilen of Oakville, Ont. went 1:07.81 and 1:07.85 to squeak into the semis in 15th and 16th place.
"It was a little bit of a different experience,'' said Van Beilen of her Olympic debut. "I had never swam at this big of a meet so it was nice to get that first race off my chest. There's a lot of technical things I can work on. It's my fastest morning swim and I always swim faster at night."
Women's 400m freestyle
Rebecca Adlington set out on the defence of her 400m freestyle crown by trying to leave nothing to chance in the slowest of the fast heats with no competition to speak of.
The rest, knowing what she had done, produced the fastest qualification field in the history of the event to try to knock the British hope out. Adlington will race in the outside lane 8, the slowest of all qualifiers, though she had a one second grace on the first woman locked out.
The crowd roaring as if the heat was the final, the 23-year-old from Nottinghamshire close to world record pace at 100m, on 58.66. The damage done, she settled into her rhythm two bodylengths clear of the chasing pack, on 2:00.80 at the half-way mark.
With 100m to go, the reigning champion of Beijing was 2sec clear of the next best on 3:03.53, close to the pace in which she raced to gold four years ago in China. Her job was now to bring it ohm for a place in the final. The crowd banging their feet into the flooring, sending a vibration through the stand, Adlington stopped the clock in 4:05.75, Chloe Sutton (USA) nearest to her in 4:07.07.
Back in seventh place was Olympic bronze medallist of Beijing Joanne Jackson, on 4:11.50 and no longer a contender this times round.
In the next heat, Coralie Balmy, of France, scorched a 4:03.56, a time just shy of the 4:03.22 in which Adlington claimed gold in Beijing. Also inside the world 800m champion's time this morning were Canadian Brittany Maclean in a new Canadian record time of 4:05.06, and world champion and record holder Federica Pellegrini (ITA), on 4:05.30.
The last line-up took to the water knowing they had to race as though they were in the final. Camille Muffat, of France, got the touch in 4:03.29, Allison Schmitt, of America, on 4:03.31, Lauren Boyle, of New Zealand, on 4:03.63 and Lotte Friis, of Denmark, on 4:04.22.
That left Pellegrini and Adlington, gold and silver ahead of bronze for Muffat at the world championships in Shanghai last year, on opposite sides of the pool for the showdown tonight.
Men's 100m backstroke
American Nick Thoman set the pace at 53.48 at the helm of the fourth heat ahead of Germany's Helge Meeuw, on 53.83, Russian Vladimir Morozov on 54.01.
Camille Lacourt, world champion from France, took the pace on a touch to 53.51 in the next heat a hand ahead of Britain's Liam Tancock, on 53.86, a time that would end up eight best of the morning, the mid-point of the 16 qualifiers.
In the last heat, Matt Grevers, the American who three weeks ago at US trials in Omaha, became the fastest man ever in a textile suit, produced the only sub-53sec effort of the morning, on 52.92, closest to him China's Cheng Feiyi in 53.22. In a tight finish, Japan's Irie Ryosuke clocked 53.56, Dutchman Nick Driebergen 53.62.
Canadian in the race Charles Francis of Cowansville, Que. made it through to the semifinals after ranking 13th in 54.08.
Men's 4x100m freestyle
A 47.35 warm-up split for James "The Missile" Magnussen ticked a few boxes: Australia stayed ahead of the USA, Russia, France and the rest in heats; The Missile is firing towards his targets, both as firestorm for the Dolphins in the relay this evening and the first Aussie gold since Mike Wenden in 1968 in the solo events.
James "The Rocket" Roberts clocked 48.22 second man in for Australia, with teammates Cameron McEvoy and Tommaso D'Orsogna set to give way to Matt Targett and Eamon Sullivan in the final tonight after a 3:12.29 conclusion this morning.
The USA also has a reserve of energy left: James Feigen, Matt Grevers, the 100m backstroke heats behind him and on 47.54 on freestyle, Ricky Berens, the 200m free heats behind him, and Jason Lezak, on 48.04 and overhauled by Magnussen this morning, combining for a 3:12.59 finish. Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian wait in the wings (and possibly Ryan Lochte too).
Russia, with Andrey Grechin, Evgeny Lagunov, Sergei Fesikov and Nikita Lobintsev, came home in 3:12.77; France, consistent and missing Gilot and Agnel, on 3:13.38.
The big miss of the morning was a ninth place for Brazil, whose coaches may well be found banging their heads against a brick wall somewhere just beyond the Olympic Park this lunchtime. After having made the mistake in Shanghai 2011 by letting Cesar Cielo have a morning off, they might have learned their lesson. But no: they did it again. Guess what? 9th again - Cielo can have the evening off too.
Canada's team of Brent Hayden (Vancouver), Colin Russell (Burlington), Richard Hotness (Medicine Hat), and Tommy Gossland (Nanaimo), did not advance to the final - they clocked 3:16.42 to finish 10th overall.
Reports by Craig Lord and Karin Helmstaedt


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Vanishing adviser reappears as Iran policy player
Last year, while Jake Sullivan was traveling with his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he quietly disappeared during a stop in Paris. He showed up again a few days later, rejoining Clinton's traveling contingent in Mongolia.
In between, Sullivan secretly jetted to the Middle Eastern nation of Oman to meet with officials from Iran, people familiar with the trip said. The July 2012 meeting is one of the Obama administration's earliest known face-to-face contacts with Iran and reveals that Sullivan - who moved from the State Department to the White House earlier this year - was personally involved in the administration's outreach to the Islamic republic far earlier than had been reported.
Senior administration officials had previously confirmed to The Associated Press that Sullivan and other officials held at least five secret meetings with Iran this year, paving the way for an interim nuclear agreement signed in November by Iran, the United States and five other world powers.
The cloak-and-dagger diplomacy may seem like a tough assignment even for a grizzled foreign policy veteran, but Sullivan is just 37 and looks even younger. Even-keeled and pragmatic, Sullivan's temperament mirrors that of President Barack Obama, people close to him say. That helped him crack the tight-knit foreign policy team at the White House where he serves as Vice President Joe Biden's national security adviser.
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While Biden is a possible presidential candidate in 2016, Sullivan remains loyal to Clinton and is seen as her likely pick for White House national security adviser, should she run for president and win.
"He's essentially a once-in-a-generation talent," said Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton aide who worked closely with Sullivan during their tenure at the State Department.
Sullivan has a gleaming resume: undergraduate and law degrees from Yale, Rhodes scholar at Oxford, and clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. He entered politics by serving as chief counsel to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sullivan's home state.
During the bruising 2008 Democratic primary, Sullivan sided with Clinton, serving as a top adviser on her debate preparation team. But he switched to Team Obama during the general election, taking on a similar role on the debate team.
When Obama tapped Clinton to lead the State Department, Sullivan followed the new secretary to Foggy Bottom. He had a pair of high-level titles - deputy chief of staff and director of policy planning - and quickly became known as one of Clinton's most trusted advisers. He traveled with her to nearly all of the 112 countries she visited as secretary and played a leading role in shaping U.S. policy toward Libya and Syria, as well as the historic opening of relations with the isolated Asian nation of Myanmar.
Clinton, whose daughter Chelsea is just four years younger than Sullivan, would sometimes turn motherly with her young adviser, openly worrying that the single Sullivan's work schedule wasn't leaving him enough time to date.
After Clinton announced she would leave the State Department after the first term, Obama advisers began courting Sullivan for a job at the White House. They hatched plans for Sullivan to have more face time with the president, including when Obama and Clinton headed to Asia in November 2012 for their final trip together as president and secretary of state.
Former White House national security adviser Tom Donilon said that after that trip, Obama gave him "direct instructions that Jake was a person he wanted to retain."
But Sullivan was weighing other options, including a possible run for Congress back in Minnesota. It took cajoling from several high-level White House staffers and personal phone calls from both Obama and Biden to coax Sullivan to the White House.
As the vice president's top foreign policy aide, he has overseen Biden's increased outreach to Latin America and Asia. But he also has become a key player on the president's national security team, participating in Obama's daily briefings and deepening his involvement in the secret Iran talks he started at the State Department.
In March, just one month after starting at the White House, Sullivan secretly boarded a military plane and headed back to Oman. This time he was joined by deputy secretary of state William Burns, one of the nation's most seasoned diplomats and a mentor to Sullivan. Waiting for them in Oman was a small handful of senior Iranian officials, wary but also curious about the possibility of a thaw in relations between the longtime adversaries.
Sullivan's contacts with the Iranians in 2012 and early 2013 were largely focused on logistics and finding out whether Americans and Iranians could even get in the same room together. But after Iranians elected a new, more moderate president this summer, the meetings quickly morphed into substantive discussions about ways to tame Iran's disputed nuclear program.
"By the early fall, I think it became clear to all of us that there was an opportunity," Burns said in an interview. "But neither Jake nor I underestimated the difficulty."
Perhaps the most important quality the understated Sullivan brought to the clandestine diplomacy: an ability to disappear and reappear while drawing little notice. Only a small handful of people were aware of the secret Iranian talks, leaving even those close to Sullivan in the dark.
Reines, who traveled with Clinton and Sullivan on the July 2012 trip, said he remembered his colleague slipping away and resurfacing in Mongolia, but only learned why in recent weeks.
Sullivan wouldn't comment on his outreach to Iran and declined to be interviewed for this story. But a speech he gave at the University of Minnesota last year provides some insight into how he views his quick rise in Washington and his view of public policy as a "study in imperfection."
"Our government -- any government, any organization -- is the sum of the human beings who operate it, who bring with them all their faults, foibles, and frailties, and all of their creativity and cleverness," he said.


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NSPC provides state-of-the-art treatment of brain and spine disorders, using minimally invasive procedures like Gamma Knife®, CyberKnife®, Novalis TX™, microdiscectomy, kyphoplasty, carotid stenting, aneurysm coiling, neuroendoscopy, neurostimulation, and minimally invasive spine surgery, rather than major surgery whenever feasible. Our physicians also perform revision spine surgery, Parkinson's Disease surgery, epilepsy surgery, and pediatric neurosurgery. They provide compassion combined with knowledge and experience.
Stereotactic Radiosurgery: How It Works
This innovative form of radiation treatment uses leading-edge technologies to first calculate the ideal access points to a treatment area and define a treatment plan. Next, specialized stereotactic radiosurgery equipment delivers a high dose of concentrated radiation beams to shrink the tumor or close off a vessel. Treatment is administered in short treatment sessions and is typically completed in one to five sessions. Patients are able to resume normal activities almost immediately with little or no side effects.
Conditions We Treat in the Long Island, New York area
Brain Tumors
Stereotactic radiosurgery is effective for both benign and malignant brain tumors. This is the least invasive procedure for treating brain tumors. Painless and bloodless, stereotactic radiosurgery is performed as an outpatient treatment while a patient is awake.
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Stereotactic radiosurgery is highly effective in treating many arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Used as a single-dose outpatient treatment for AVMS that are in areas that are difficult to reach by surgery, stereotactic radiosurgery safely irradiates blood vessels in the AVM, leading others to complete resolution over the course of several months.
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in the form of Gamma Knife is a minimally invasive procedure that is effective in treating essential tremor as well as other tremors
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The least-invasive procedure for successfully treating trigeminal neuralgia, stereotactic radiosurgery delivers radiation beams to the root of the trigeminal nerve inside the brain and disrupts the nerve's pain signal. This treatment is highly successful at improving or eliminating the pain of trigeminal neuralgia.
Spinal Tumors
The Long Island, NY, neurosurgeons at NSPC's Stereotactic Radiosurgery Center utilize stereotactic radiation technologies to deliver a high dose of concentrated radiation beams directly to spine tumors without damaging healthy tissue around it. Unlike surgery that is used to remove tumors, stereotactic radiation treatment distorts the DNA of cell tumors, causing them to lose their ability to reproduce and retain fluids.
Specializing in the Most Advanced Procedures
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Gamma Knife: Gamma Knife radiosurgery is the most precise form of single-session brain radiosurgery used for both malignant and benign tumors, arteriovenous malformations, and trigeminal neuralgia. Gamma Knife radiosurgery is often utilized in place of standard surgery and radiation.
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Our stereotactic radiosurgeons


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BUS-L 314 International Business Law
Covers the law and practice of international trade, licensing, and investment. Subjects include the legal risks of international business, international public law, international organizations, and private dispute settlement procedures. Also discussed are the risks associated with importing and exporting, foreign licensing and franchising, and foreign investment.


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What Retirees Commonly Miss About Work
You can only play so much golf.
Once you retire, you're likely to need something besides your hobbies to occupy your time. Unfortunately, many people enter their retirement years without determining what their next passion will be.
"You need a reason to get out of bed in the morning," says Tom Hegna, a retirement planner, author and speaker based in Fountain Hills, Ariz. "Being in the workforce gives people a sense of belonging and importance. It is often their sense of power. They enjoy having people look to them for answers. It gives them a feeling of fulfillment. But once they leave the workforce, they often lose that."
A 2012 study by Bankers Life and Casualty Company's Center for a Secure Retirement backs this up. According to the study, retirees miss a lot about work. Many find that they have a lot of free time and not enough to do with it.
The lesson here? You might dream of the day when you can chuck your commute and pick up your fishing poles. But there's more to retirement planning than making sure that you have enough money to live out your post-work years. You also need to consider how you will fill your days.
And if you don't? You could be facing a long, unsatisfying retirement.
"You have to think of something that gives you a sense of purpose," Hegna says. "It could be working with a charity. It could be getting more involved in the community. You need something productive to do with your life. You need to be doing something to help other people."
Things retirees miss about work
The Bankers Life study asked 300 retirees ages 55 to 75 several open-ended questions about their retirement lives and what they missed most and least about working. What did retirees miss most? According to the study, 65 percent said they most missed interacting with co-workers, friends or students at work. What's most interesting about this is that retirees cited this more than four times as often as they said that they most missed the extra income of working.Only 15 percent of retirees said they most missed the extra money -- and that answer was the second most popular. This shows just how important workplace relationships can become, and the void they can leave behind when you retire.As one respondent said: "I miss my co-workers. They became a family away from home."The next most popular responses? Retirees said they missed the fulfillment of their jobs and the sense that they were doing something important every day.
This doesn't mean that retirees miss everything about work. The Bankers Life survey also asked retirees what they missed least about going into work every day. A total of 25 percent of respondents said they did not miss the stress of work. That was the most popular response to this question.Retirees also said that they did not miss getting up early, dealing with bosses and their daily commute. When asked what most surprised them about the retirement lifestyle, the largest number of respondents said that they were surprised at how much free time they now had.Having free time can be a positive, but if you have too much, it can be a challenge. That's why several respondents told Bankers Life that they often struggled to find enough to do to fill each day. As one respondent described it: "Lots of time with little to do."
Planning for a fulfilling retirement
Sean Wilson, wealth management adviser in the New York City office of TIAA-CREF, says that too many pre-retirees focus entirely on the financial side of retirement planning. What they don't consider is how they'll spend their days."It's Monday morning. It's 7 a.m. What will I do with my day? How do I see people? What makes me happy? How do I keep my mind sharp? These are the questions that people have to start asking three to five years before they are ready to retire," Wilson says. "By trying to answer these questions, clients are thinking outside of the financial aspects of retirement. They are thinking of how they can continue growing as a person."For some people, a phased retirement might make sense, Wilson says. Some workers might prefer reducing their hours -- and, of course, their pay -- for a three- to five-year period before entirely phasing themselves out of the workforce.Before taking such a path, pre-retirees will have to speak with their employers to make sure the option is available. If so, they should then ask important questions about the impact such a move can have on their health benefits, employer-provided life insurance plan and other factors.
The original article can be found at Money-Rates.com:What retirees commonly miss about work


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JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell says an agreement has been signed that allows for the next stage in pursuing a major liquefied natural gas project.
Parnell says environmental field work and pipeline engineering have begun as part of a phase in which the parties are expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.
There's still no guarantee the mega-project will be built, but Parnell called the agreement and work underway a mark of significant progress.
The parties involved are BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corp., TransCanada Corp., and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.
ConocoPhillips was previously a holdout to signing because of issues the company said were confidential. A spokeswoman said those issues have been resolved.
Parnell said the project, in the coming weeks, will work to begin the process of securing an export license.


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It's hard to be smart in elementary school.
You can't say that to anyone. Try and you're laughed at. Things are allowed to be hard for people with learning disabilities, people who are mentally challenged, people with a physical or mental handicap. Things aren't allowed to be hard for you if you're smart. That's supposed to be a good thing. That's supposed to be an asset. If you're complaining about being smart, you're being ungrateful. People mock you and laugh at you and say cruel things to you. Because you're not allowed to complain if you're smart.
It's the smart kids, however, who have the hardest time in elementary school.
I mean anyone who is book smart. Anyone who likes to read. Anyone who always knew the answers in class, who was resentful that the teacher wouldn't call on them more often and bored, simply doodled through class. Kids who didn't ever have to study; they would ace the test without any work. And the kids who wouldn't tell their grades because they'd be attacked if they did.
I was one of those kids.
I read all the books in The Little Midrash Says which meant I always knew the answer in Chumash and Navi class. I would always raise my hand and the teacher would avoid calling on me in order to give the other girls a chance. I was bored. I would draw pictures all through class. It never occurred to me that people would think I was showing off or a snob, though in retrospect, I'm sure that is what they thought.
I was painfully shy. Not shy of kids, but of adults. It was regarded as an honor for the teacher to ask you to go to another teacher's room and request a board marker or a board eraser. I hated being asked to go on these missions. I hated having to go to the room of an adult I didn't know. What if I did it wrong? What if I went to the wrong room?
I didn't even like going to the receptionists' office. Adults frightened me. I didn't like them. I couldn't understand the easy banter some kids had with them. I didn't know how other kids in the school seemed to know all the teachers, even the ones who had never taught them. I didn't know anybody outside of the teachers I had to take. I was quiet around anyone else.
I didn't have any friends. In fact, I didn't know what it was to have friends. What would you do with the other person once they were actually at your house? I had no idea. On Shabbos, when other people would get together or have playdates, I would read books. I didn't realize this was unusual. I thought everyone read books or went to the park on Shabbos. It didn't occur to me that you could have friends over.
I tried very hard to make friends. It was very difficult. We weren't the same. This isn't me being elitist; this is me telling the truth. I was in the uncomfortable position of being more mature than those my age. I simply couldn't find the things they did to be compelling or interesting. I also wasn't good at them. I wasn't good at sports. And I didn't know much about fashion. So what would I talk about? I could only try to interest them in the things that interested me, and they would make fun of me for that. I "talked like a dictionary." I had a "good vocabulary." For some reason, this was regarded as a crime.
But the worst of it was that I was picked on. Bullied.
I was bullied by the shortest girl in the class. A girl I could have beaten up in two seconds flat. But she wasn't physically hurting me. She didn't punch me or hit me or otherwise leave any marks. She hurt me with her words. She verbally slammed me and put me down and was cruel to me- at least once a week, probably more often. She did this starting from third or fourth grade.
I didn't know how to defend myself.
I didn't have the ability to come up with quick retorts, with easy, witty comebacks. I was at a loss. She would say something hurtful and two hours later I would think of what I should have said, what I ought to have said. But it was too late; the opportunity was lost. I was slow. I was a slow thinker. I wasn't good at banter or at retorts; I wasn't good at giving as good as I got.
I was also not good at hiding my feelings.
When people hurt me, I became upset. I cried. This only handed her more ammunition. I was, she said, a crybaby. And others agreed with her. I was sensitive.
Being sensitive is even worse than "having a good vocabulary."
Of course, I was angry with myself. Anyone in my position would have been. Why couldn't I control my feelings? Why couldn't I, damn it, just not cry? Why did I have to show everything I felt; why couldn't I be more thick-skinned? Why was I so sensitive?
I tried to toughen up. There was a period of time, albeit a short one, where you couldn't make me do anything. I wouldn't cry for you. I was sullen, sulking, angry. But it was too hard to mantain. I couldn't do it. Everything she said was shocking, surprising; low-handed blows to the gut. I couldn't school my face into submission. She made me angry and I had no way of fighting back. Crying and yelling at her was exactly what she wanted; she wanted to see me cry. And she succeeded.
She only bullied me. I don't know why she hated me so much. My parents thought that perhaps she was jealous of me. I don't know. There wasn't much to be jealous of. Why be jealous of the kid who didn't have friends, couldn't play sports well and didn't know about fashion?
A lot of times what hurt was more her tone of voice than the words used. The words were innocuous; the tone made them poisonous. And of course there was the sarcasm.
I recall one time she walked into our sixth-grade class and smiling in a satisfied manner, possibly after reducing me to tears, she said, "I like to make people cry."
I can't remember the incidents so much as how she made me feel. She made me feel so low, so confused, so unhappy. She made me feel angry- angry at her and what she was doing, but also so helpless. There was no way to stop her. We tried every way possible. Also problematic was the fact that she was charming around anybody else. Nobody else saw this side of her. It was only me. I was the lucky one.
There was one time where she had made me angry and I wanted some privacy so I was talking to my sometimes friend and we were hiding in the closet of the room. So she calls out, "Shoshana and Chana are making out" in her mocking, nasty tone of voice. I didn't even know what it meant but I knew it was something bad. And I was angry and couldn't control it so of course I started crying, which just made everything worse.
There was another time where I had done something nice- someone had a little kids' chair they couldn't sit on; they were too tall. I was the second-shortest in the class; the shortest person was my bully. So I told the girl who was too tall to give me her chair and I sat on the baby chair while I gave her mine. My bully somehow managed to twist this entire scenario around and make me into doing something bad. I don't even remember what she said, but she somehow made it sound like I was an attention-seeking freak who was sitting on the little kid's chair in order to get everyone to look at me and more along those lines, when I had only done it to be nice. It was that kind of thing that really got to me, that she was even able to take the things I had done that were nice and twist them into something bad. And I didn't know how to stop her.
I couldn't defend myself at all.
I came home and would tell my parents, but they were at a loss for things to do. They called the girl's parents; that obviously didn't work. They even called the principal; that was horrible. My bully and I were called to the principal's office; she walked alongside me and said, "Listen, Chana, let's make up; I don't want to get into trouble. Let's just tell the principal we both get along." And of course, since he saw us both at the same time, I didn't dare to disagree with her. I couldn't tell him what she'd done to me in her presence; I was too scared. So we made up and I was disgusted with myself but what could I have done? She was the one who wielded the power, not me.
My parents tried to help me; they really did. They came up with retorts and responses and ways I could defend myself. But none of it worked. In the end, it always came down to her and me, and she always won.
She was a mercenary for hire. Whenever anyone in the class was mad at me, she'd saunter over to them and say, "Oh, you're upset with Chana? Let me help you" and she'd come over to me and shove me or take my things away or mess up my desk.
I was miserable.
Another problem was that it was all easy to dismiss. It wasn't as though she were really hurting me; she didn't leave scars or marks anywhere. And the things she did were minor enough that adults would dismiss them. It's just that they were constant. All the time, every day, I would go to school fearing what would happen that day, what she was going to do to me that day, what she was going to say. All these minor things add up until your life is truly miserable.
In seventh grade, I discovered a book. It was called Sticks and Stones: When Words are Used as Weapons by Dr. Miriam Adahan. I read the book cover to cover, then I had my parents buy it for me. It explained so much. It helped me so much. Because it made me realize I wasn't alone in this. I wasn't the only one who was mercilessly teased and bullied without cause, who was punished for being smart, who had to deal with this. No.
I was so glad to know that other people thought that that rhyme was wrong. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." In truth, words hurt far more than sticks and stones ever could. The rhyme should have been switched around.
I decided that my bully had APD. I read this passage and decided it absolutely fit my bully:
- THIRD DEGREE- CONSCIOUS CRUELTY: When people use words or facial expressions to control, belittle and terrorize others, this is ona'as devarim at its worst. Like a third-degree burn, the hurt caused by this type of verbal abuse penetrates deeply and often leaves victims with a permanent sense of worthlessness.
People who purposely dominate and belittle, and do so compulsively, are like alcoholics. They suffer from a serious and dangerous addiction called Abusive Personality Disorder (APD).
To gain control over others, those with APD use a range of cruel tactics such as violent explosions and cruel coldness, alternating with moments of charm and friendliness. Those with APD have no sense of guilt or remorse for the pain they cause others nor sympathy for their victims. If they do apologize, it is only to win back the person's trust, and once that is accomplished, they begin attacking again. Their compulsion to undermine and humiliate is as compelling as any addictive craving.
Many people with APD are very charming to those whom they want to influence, while terrorizing others. OR they are alternately charming and cruel, or nasty only to one family member while nice to others. This double personality phenomenon makes the victims thoroughly confused and constantly agitated.
People with APD almost never go to therapy since they do not recognize that they have a problem. They think they are reacting to provocations in a justified manner and that their moments of niceness make up for whatever they do the rest of the time.
What is very confusing about people with APD is that their public image is often so very different from their private behavior. They are often in positions of power and may be dynamic community activists, generous philanthropists and seemingly friendly, normal human beings. Outsiders would never imagine the viciousness which erupts only in the privacy of their own homes.
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That was her exactly. That's exactly what she was like. She would be very kind to me one day, very pleasant, and the next day she'd be cruel again. She would apologize for hurting my feelings, then hurt me even more the next day. Most other people thought she was charming. Not me.
I finally had a kind of handle on why I was always so confused about her- that was part of it. All these apologies and lies and pretending to be nice only to kick me down again- was part of her act. So I got wise to it.
The book empowered me. I was still being put down, but now I understood, and that really made a difference.
It was Aliza who really helped me. Aliza came to my school in eighth grade and when my bully tried to put her down- because Aliza, too, was smart- Aliza just laughed and talked right back at her. And it worked! I had never seen this before. So I realized that it was possible to talk back; I didn't know how to do it but Aliza did. And Aliza got her to leave me alone. Which was one of the first reasons I decided Aliza was going to be my friend.
Strangely, my bully appears to have no idea what she did to me and how she made my life miserable. At the end of eighth grade, she signed my autograph book and wrote something about how "we were such good friends and she looked forward to having fun with me next year in high school." I looked at that in shock. Never had I expected her to write anything like that. Could it be? Could she really not have realized what she'd done to me, how miserable she'd made me?
It appears that the answer is yes.
I never brought it up to her. I think she has changed. She certainly had a miserable enough time at Templars- this time, it was she who believed she had no friends and who hated the school. I think that perhaps she has matured, grown up, become a better person.
It is strange that someone could do so much to another person and not realize the impact she has on them. She seems to have no idea how much I hated her, how she hurt me and how she ruined elementary school for me. I don't know whether she'd be sorry if she knew. I'd like to think she would be.
I will tell you what is hardest. It is hardest to see your sibling or someone else who is close to you going through the same experience you had to deal with, the same torture, the same bullying. At first, you want to deny it. You want to say it isn't happening, not again, not to him. But then you realize it is. And there's nothing you can do to change it. You're just as helpless as you were. Now he has to learn how to deal with it, how to cope, how to suffer through. You, just like your parents, can be a support system, of course. But you can't really change things. Not in any way that helps.
You can only listen as he catalogues the reasons he's being hurt- this time physically, too- because he's too frum for his school, not in any kind of ostentatious way, but simply because he doesn't touch girls. Keeping shomer negiah makes you too frum. Or because he really does pray, not those one-minute Minchas but a true prayer. Or because he's smart, bookishly smart, just like I was. Or because of his vocabulary and the way he speaks. Oh, and he's not incredibly good at sports (that prerequisite for being popular.) Yes, for all these reasons, he's the odd one out, the outcast, the one who is being bullied. Oh, and lest I forget, he's sensitive. The crime above all others.
Telling kids to toughen up doesn't help. In fact, most typical responses (thank God my parents aren't typical) don't help. Asking your child whether he provoked the bullying, for example. The first couple times, that might make sense- sometimes your child did provoke it. But with a constant bully, that's not the case. You've done nothing but you're still going to be attacked. Telling kids to "please" their bully doesn't help either. The bully isn't "pleasable." S/he's not going to stop because you satisfy some kind of condition of theirs. They get a kick out of what they do, putting other people down in order to feel more important themselves. Telling kids to "ignore" bullying won't work, either. You can't ignore it when someone is trying to hurt you. You can't. And being sensitive isn't a crime and shouldn't be treated as one.
I may say this, but what can I do? I can only watch what happens helplessly.
I love my brother. He doesn't deserve this.
Nobody does.


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"I'm a really good, well-rounded guitar player," says Ricky Byrd. "I'm good at playing for the artist I'm playing with, whether it's Joan Jett, Roger Daltrey or whoever. It's all Chuck Berry down the center, and then I can shift left or right depending on what I need to do. Somewhere in there is my actual style, and that's what you hear on the new record."
That record would be Lifer, on which the former guitarist for Joan Jett And The Blackhearts, has penned an 11-song love letter to the British rock, Memphis soul and gritty blues that he grew listening to as a Bronx teenager. Beyond its myriad splendors - crunchy, zippy, easy-to-like tunes; clear, concise, evocative lyrics - is Byrd's wonderfully vibrant guitar playing, an idiosyncratic mix of punchy inventiveness and puckish humor.
"I really wanted to show people what I can do as a guitarist on the record," says Byrd. "Because of being in the Blackhearts, people didn't really know me. Even the guitar mags wanted to talk to Joan, so I didn't get a lot of attention. This was my chance to show off skills as a pretty spot-on rock 'n' roll and blues guitar player."
Byrd sat down with MusicRadar recently to talk about his days with Joan Jett And The Blackhearts, his reverence for '60s and '70s rock and how the eras informed Lifer, and why he's addicted to Gibson guitars - Les Pauls, especially. (You can order the CD of Lifer here and the MP3 here.)
People are always interested in an artist's big break. What was yours, and how did it lead to joining the Blackhearts?
"It was a little bit of luck and timing. I was in a band called Susan, and Tommy Motolla was our manager. We were kind of like a Raspberries-type band, which, you know, that's OK. We got dropped, and so I was hanging around New York. I got to be friendly with the people at Leiber and Krebs, who managed Joan, and a bunch of other people - I was meeting everybody. One day, Kenny Laguna, Joan's producer, called my girlfriend, [and now wife] Carol, and said, 'Your boyfriend's a guitar player, right? We're looking for somebody.'
"I didn't even know who Joan Jett was. I had seen The Runaways, but I didn't think much - I was more into Free and Led Zeppelin. But I went down to play with Joan, we got along great, and I joined the band. Pretty simple. I saw them play the last gig with Eric Ambel to kind of get a vibe of it. I thought, 'Yeah, this could be fun.' I wasn't a punk guy, but I thought I could bring some of the bands I was into - the Stones, Faces, Sparks, Bowie, all of that - into the Joan Jett thing. That's literally what I did."
Nobody really talks about Joan Jett as a guitarist. What would you say her strengths are as a player, and how did you try to mesh your style with hers?
"She's a really good guitar player. What she does, she does brilliantly, and that's rhythm guitar. She's solid as a rock. When I came in, I had to make some tweaks because I was coming from somewhere else - Peter Green, Leslie West, Paul Kossoff. Listen to I Love Rock 'N' Roll: after trying about six different guitar breaks, I wound up with something that's really Mississippi Queen-ish."
It is. It's a very jarring solo spot.
"Yes! Yeah, it's supposed to be that way. But it's a very simplistic solo, too. I tried it a whole bunch of other ways, and that's how it sounded the best. I'm a big 'squeaky' guitar player [laughs] - we all learned how to do that from Leslie. You kind of grab the pick at the very end. Plus, it's the sound of the Les Pauls and the Les Paul Juniors."
The guitar crunch on that song is pretty special. The sound is as thick and huge as the heaviest heavy metal.
"We were not going for subtlety, that's for sure. [Laughs] We double-tracked the guitars, and I might have even put three tracks of me putting down those chords through a Marshall. Joan probably did the same thing. The guitar I used was my black '77 Les Paul Pro Deluxe, which is just an unbelievable instrument.
"I still have that guitar, in fact. There's nary a trace of black paint on the back from all of the '80s belts I wore. It's all beat up; it's got a Johnny Cash sticker on it now. Originally, it had the P-90s in it. I used to switch things around on the road a lot. I was never one for the 'holier than thou' thing with guitars, where you have to leave them just as they are. You have to make a guitar work, you know?"
After the I Love Rock 'N' Roll album, you started getting songwriting credits. Was Joan very receptive to your songs, or was it a bit of a struggle?
"Yeah, she was receptive. You know, everybody's looking for good songs. For the first couple of years, Joan and I were together, like, 24/7. You sit around, you show each other riffs - songs develop. I kind of slipped my way in. I'm not going to say that the splits were fair [laughs], but I had no problem working that into the routine. We were a band. That wasn't always the angle in the press, but Joan always felt as if she was one of the Blackhearts."
Why did you leave the group? I can't really remember what happened there.
"It was just time. I was in the Blackhearts for 10, almost 11 years. It was time to leave. My theory is, when you're on stage in front of 30,000 people, and you're thinking about what you're going to have for dinner, it's time to leave. [Laughs] There was no animosity or anything. I don't really see Joan, although I did bump into her two years ago - we hugged. I'm sure she felt abandoned when I left, but you know, I had just gotten a Sony publishing deal, and frankly I wanted to see what else I could do. It was time. In the Blackhearts, I was playing the same set over and over; maybe one or two songs was different. Yeah, it was definitely time."
Let's talk about the new album. Your singing is terrific throughout. I read a quote of yours where you said something like "I grew into my throat."
"It' true. I'm a historian of rock 'n' roll and soul music, and in my head I can sing like Otis Redding. If I sing low, I can sing like Steve Marriot. I know the riffs; I know the way the technique goes. But how do I do that and turn it into me? My voice is a little raspy from too many years of Jack Daniels [laughs]. Really, though, it's me writing around my voice. It's funny: I've had an amazing response to my vocals on the album, but if you heard me sing a blues song or a Stones song in a club, I'd sound like just like some guy in a bar. You have to write for your voice."
"The thing squeals like a pig and feels like a stripper," Byrd says of his Epiphone Flying V. © Ricky Byrd
Between the sound of a guitar being plugged in and the title and lyrics, the song Rock 'N' Roll Boys sounds like a real mission statement.
"It is. The album is my love letter to rock 'n' roll. My attitude is, I paid the check, so I'm going to eat anything off the buffet table I want. [Laughs] I made the record without a band, but I wanted it to sound like a band; I wanted it to be Keith on one side, Ronnie on the other, and bass and drums in the middle. That's rock 'n' roll like I remember it; I wanted to be able to see that when I heard the song.
"Attitude, lyrics, the guitar sounds - I wanted this to excite people the way this kind of music excited me when I was playing with myself in my room at 13 years old. [Then, quickly] Wait a second - that sounds weird [laughs]. Playing guitar with myself, not playing… You know what I mean. [Laughs] There's great rock 'n' roll grooves all over the record.
"This is no small thing: There are a lot of people between the ages of 30 and 60 who love and miss this kind of music. Nobody's making it anymore. There might be some band in the Midwest, but we might not know of them. This is the torch I've been passed and that I'm going to carry."
You worked with Southside Johnny Lyons on a couple of songs. What does he bring to your style of songwriting - besides his obvious soulful essence?
[Laughs] "Well, he always has that. My theory is this: 100 percent of a bad song is still zero. Even though I wrote five or six songs on the record myself, I try to play with people that I want to write with. South is one of them. I've played with him for a couple of years, filling in for Bobby Bandieria when he went out with Bon Jovi. So I would bring South these riffs, and we wrote Ways Of A Woman and Things To Learn About Love. We wrote another song that didn't make the record, too. He has great phrasing and can add those little touches that nobody else does."
"I'm pretty much an addict," says Byrd, with his ES-335. "I'm a Gibson guy." © Bobby Bank
Married Man is a pretty interesting song about temptation. What was your wife's reaction to it?
"She likes it. That song came about because of some politicians a few years ago who had some, uh, 'indiscretions,' shall we say. It was the Elliot Spitzer one who got me. I think the parentheses to the song should be 'Blowjobs Don't Count.' [Laughs] The music, though, is totally Mustang Sally. I try to take the grooves that I want to play live, and that's how I write my songs. I mean, I don't want to write about cars or girls per se, so I have to look for other subjects."
What are you go-to guitars these days? I would imagine they're mostly Gibsons.
"I'm a Gibson guy top to bottom. Since my first Les Paul in '77, those are the guitars for me. In addition to the black one, I have a blue sparkle Deluxe that I bought from GE Smith in '84. What else do I have? I've got a '53 ES-295 that's really nice. Speaking of Humble Pie, I have a '61 Epiphone Coronet, just like Steve Marriot used; it sounds like an angry kid. I love 335s, so I use them. I have a '61 SG Junior, a white one. Let's see… I just bought a '76 Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul that I love. I'm pretty much an addict. I'm a Gibson guy."
You sure are. I'm curious - do any other brands ever enter the mix?
"If you look at some old Blackheart pictures, I might be playing a '61 California Corona Strat. You know, I loved it, but it just wasn't me. I love Gibsons, I love Les Pauls - I need to feel that wood. But I will say that Les Pauls are starting to get heavy to me these days, but that's due to 30 years of bad posture. So I love the 335s… But I will say that this '76 I just got is pretty remarkable. Oh, and I have a Epiphone Flying V, too. I got it from Chelsea Guitars for 500 bucks. I did some modifications to it, and I'll tell you, it sounds like a $7,000 Custom Shop V. The thing squeals like a pig and feels like a stripper. That's what I need from any guitar - that's my criteria there there." [Laughs]


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We'd like to customize the look of our SharePoint 2010 pages and sites but didn't know what some best practices are:
- We'd like to change the look of pages some without breaking the link between them and their master pages. In other words, if you change a page in Designer, it won't take the changes from the master page later.
- Also, we'd like to create our own CSS styles and modify existing styles. What's the best way to do this? Should we use our own CSS file?
- Will these changes cause problems if we later need to upgrade to a newer version of SharePoint?
Thank you and sorry if these are newbie questions :)


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In Bewitched—an oddball reinvention of the 1960s sitcom—Nicole Kidman tells the ubiquitous Will Ferrell, "I think the fact that you're a hopeless mess is very refreshing," but critics are not so charitable about bad movies. Nora and Delia Ephron co-wrote this postmodern Bewitched, and though it's sort of creative, it's also haphazard and disorienting. Even by picture's end, you'll be asking, "Who are these people, and what's going on?"
Kidman plays Isabel, a real witch in the real world who tires of being able to do anything and resolves to stop using magic. This choice corresponds to her discovery by Hollywood, which is plotting a sitcom revival of Bewitched. The gag is that a falling star named Jack Wyatt (Ferrell) has retooled the show to be all about Darren, the mortal husband to nose-wiggling witch Samantha. Wyatt's agent creates a monster by convincing his client to become the "sheriff of Ballsville" instead of the "Mayor of Pussytown." The clash of a witch and a egomaniacal star naturally leads to a variety of complications, including love.
Ferrell's amusing in full-blown manic mode, but as the years wear on, Kidman continues to prove that she must choose her projects much more delicately. She has the glacial glamour of a Hitchcock blonde and she can play spitfire notes of hysteria and hostility in the right black comedy (To Die For). Affecting a breathy voice and head-in-the-clouds naivete, the Kidman of Bewitched has her moments, insisting each bit of self-satisfying act-one magic (like instantly hooking up her entertainment center) is "my absolute last thing" and pouting with her no-nonsense father (Michael Caine). Like the plot, though, Kidman gets lost quickly, and Isabel's eventual self-actualization feels like a pulled punch.
The Ephron sisters toy with the notion that Hollywood is riddled with witches or, in other words, people used to getting everything they want (Isabel tells her father, "Your life is total instant gratification," but he calls her pot on calling his kettle black). Director Nora also has some fun with a jazzy lounge-swinger chic style meant to evoke the show's sixties oeuvre, but nothing makes any sense outside of the basic plotline of two selfish people getting outside of themselves and falling in love.
If Bewitched was fiction and Elizabeth Montgomery was an actress, is the existence here of an Aunt Clara and Uncle Arthur (both of whom bear striking resemblances to their TV forebears) meant to be a coincidence or a signal that Samantha was always real? These are questions with which the blithely phony Bewitched won't be bothered. Carole Shelley's Clara is a hoot, but the oft-foreshadowed, back-loaded appearance of Farrell's Anchorman co-star Steve Carell as a deus-ex-machina Arthur completely derails the picture (Carell's grotesquely stiff Paul Lynde impression doesn't help).
Caine, as Kidman's warlock father, and Shirley MacLaine, as the diva cast to play Endora, add value, though both are effectively crowded to the margins. Whenever the story fizzles, the Ephrons add a new character, a montage, or a popular song to artificially raise the audience's spirits (Sinatra's "Witchcraft" and Steve Lawrence's version of the "Bewitched" theme, natch). At one point, the story basically halts for a romp-around-the-studio montage, which is good for a smile, but bad for coherent story development. Bewitched flails around then fails to stick its landing.